Corporate History

The company was established in 2005 to commercialise the discovery that the body's immune response to self-antigen could be “re-educated” to silence rather than to activate. The technology targets the dendritic cells which are key cells in the immune system that present antigens to T cells. The therapeutic response may be both long-lasting and fine-tuned to the pathology at play.

In 2012, Dendright entered into a strategic research collaboration with Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd in Australia. The following year, Dendright penned a R&D collaboration and option to license agreement with US-based Janssen Biotech, Inc. to develop and commercialize the tolerizing immunotherapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

In 2016, Janssen extended the collaboration to fund the first-in-human safety and tolerability study which plans to commence enrollment in the second half of 2017.

In addition to the partnership with Janssen, Dendright attracted funding from Arthritis Queensland in 2016 and Accelerating Commercialisation from the Australian Government in 2013.

Prior to the Janssen partnership, Dendright received non-diluting finance via competitive commercial grant funding for industry from the Queensland State Government and the Australian Government.

The discovery which underpins Dendright was made by Professor Ranjeny Thomas, Dr Brendan O’Sullivan and Dr Nigel Davies at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute.

The discovery was patented by UniQuest Pty Limited, the main commercialisation company of The University of Queensland. Dendright has an exclusive worldwide license from UniQuest to commercialise the rheumatoid arthritis immunotherapy. Dendright is wholly owned by UniQuest Pty Limited.